Leonard L. Church
Private Leonard L. Church, also known as Artificial Intelligence Program Alpha, was a main character in Red vs. Blue, and was voiced by Burnie Burns, co-creator and former main writer of the series. He was the angry, de facto leader of the Blood Gulch Blue Team and was later revealed to be the Freelancer AI Alpha, revealed in Reconstruction: Chapter 16. Rooster Teeth often used Church, who has an irate disposition,Burns, et al., 2006, Audio Commentary, episode 76. to advance the plot by managing the situation at hand; this in a way makes Church the main protagonist of The Blood Gulch Chronicles, the deuteragonist in Reconstruction, and a minor character onwards for the rest of the series with Epsilon taking his place and role.Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 18. At the end of Reconstruction: Chapter 19, Church is revealed to be based on the personality of the former Director of Project Freelancer, Dr. Leonard Church. The remaining part of Church was Epsilon who, like Church, was voiced by Burns and had similar traits, despite being a fragment. Overview When the series began, Rooster Teeth wanted to portray Church to be like Gustavo Sorola, being quite annoyed and having a sarcastic, yet intelligent grasp on certain situations. Church shows to be easily angered or annoyed by anyone and "dying" has added to this trait of his. Even though he states he dislikes his teammates and the Reds, some instances have shown Church to be a caring person to several characters through the series, most notably Tex as the two (supposedly) used to be a couple. To provide a twist in character development, Burns decided to kill Church early in the series and to return as a ghost. However, this posed filming and post-production challenges for the creators. Church has also been filmed in four different games representing the three different eras of the story. As the series progressed, Red vs Blue became more focused on Church and later his copy, Epsilon. Role in Plot Project Freelancer The Alpha is first heard in the episode Planning the Heist, telling the Director of calculations he made. When the Director says the calculations sound correct, Alpha replies by saying it is because the Director and he share the same mind. He then jokes that the Director would have made the calculations more slowly. The two continue to talk, both questioning who is the more arrogant, until Carolina walks in. The Director then orders Alpha to log off. Eventually, more and more A.I. appear, some even ahead of schedule, and they are given to an agent whose personality matches to balance the A.I.'s. The agents eventually begin to question what is being done to create these fragments and how theirs are beginning to obsess over their "creator." In Season 10, Alpha is seen being, indirectly, tortured by the Director, the Counselor, and A.I. units Sigma, Omega, and Gamma. During the torturing, Alpha becomes concerned by the fact that he hurt one of his friends and asks his superiors if the information regarding it is true. In response, the Director lies to Alpha by stating that Washington and Tex were killed because of him, the latter of which greatly saddens the Alpha. During this time, the Director, with the help of Sigma, Gamma, and Omega, extracts Alpha's emotions into a storage unit. After Epsilon's removal from Alpha, Tex broke in to see him, after she goes rogue. By uploading herself into the Mother of Invention's computers, Tex manages to speak with Alpha, but the latter doesn't recognize her. Tex reminds Alpha that he is also known as Church and tries to convince him to leave with her. However, Alpha declines her request, stating that he feels tired. When Tex says goodbye Alpha states that he dislikes goodbyes, to which Tex replies she does too, before leaving. Later, the Director and Counselor decide to move Alpha to a place where he'd never be found and placed Butch Flowers, also known as Agent Florida, to watch over and protect Alpha. Transfer to Blood Gulch To ensure the Alpha's safety, Agent Florida and other Project Freelancer personnel oversee a Red army boot camp in order to find the perfect candidates to inhabit the location that the Alpha will be placed in, Blood Gulch. Eventually, Florida chooses three Red soldiers to act as the Blood Gulch Red team: Privates Grif and Simmons and their commanding officer Sarge. Florida also enlists Private Tucker to be the third member of the Blood Gulch Blue Team, alongside Alpha and himself. After choosing the four candidates, Florida meets Private Jimmy and forcibly implants him with the Alpha A.I. in order for the Alpha to fully possess him. Now having a body of his own, Alpha awakens in Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha and meets Captain Flowers, aka Florida. Flowers greets Alpha and asks him his name. Alpha states that his name is Church and adds that he remembers his girlfriend Tex fighting Jimmy in a snowy area. Flowers then introduces Church to Tucker, but the two quickly show a dislike for each other. Soon after, the three spy on the Reds from a cliff, with Church being completely unaware of his true past and identity. One day, after Church receives his own Sniper Rifle from Command, he and Tucker find Flowers dead inside the base, unaware that a time-travelling Church was responsible for their leader's death. As a result, Church appoints himself as Blue Team leader while Tucker takes Flowers' armor for himself. Misadventures in Blood Gulch Church first appears in Episode 1, spying on the Red Team with his teammate, Tucker.Burns, et al., 2003. The series establishes Church's disposition quickly; annoyed with Tucker's questions about the Red Team, he responds, "You know what? I fucking hate you." As Donut, the Red Team's new recruit arrives, they meet their own rookie, Caboose, and their new tank. When they first meet, Church becomes annoyed with Caboose for his nonstop talking but this is only the start of this when Caboose calls his girlfriend a cow and sends him to guard the flag. .]] When Donut arrives at Blue base, while on a fool's errand, Church thinks he is Caboose and tells him to go inside, thus leading to Donut taking the Blue Team's flag. As Church and Tucker pursue Donut, they are ambushed by Simmons and Grif in the Warthog and are forced to take shelter behind a boulder. When Caboose arrives with Sheila, the Blue Team's tank, the two Reds are scared off. However, Caboose loses control of Sheila and accidentally "kills" Church, though in reality this only killed Jimmy, unknowingly freeing Church of his possession by implementation. Church reappears as a "ghost" and warns his teammates about Tex, the Freelancer hired by Blue Command who killed all of his fellow Blues at Sidewinder, before fading away. After Tex arrives, she retrieves the Blue flag but is captured by the Reds. Church reappears and explains that Tex is his former girlfriend, now under the control of an evil, psychotic artificial intelligence program. He rescues Tex by possessing Sarge, though he is shot in the head by Caboose, who was trying to 'help.' He then has a brief conversation with Sarge in the 'afterlife.' Afterward, Tex agrees to repair Sheila. In an attempt to slow Tex's progress so that he can remove the AI from her head, Church attempts to warn the Reds of Tex's second attack by possessing the Reds' Spanish-speaking robot, Lopez. However, he is unable to warn them because he can only speak Spanish. He fails, and Tex dies at Donut's hands. Church runs over to her and is thanked for removing the A.I. Three months later, Church is still attempting to adjust to his stolen robot body. After losing the newly arrived medic, Doc, to the Reds, the Blues attempt to turn on Lopez's repair function in order to repair Sheila. Caboose suggests Church leave Lopez's body, have Lopez fix Sheila, and re-possess him when he finishes. Agreeing to this Church leaves Lopez's body, in hopes that the robot would be able to repair itself, but Tex (as a "ghost") takes control of Lopez. She uses it as a bargaining chip to convince Church to help her destroy her evil A.I., O'Malley, who had possessed Caboose just before her death. When the team learns of this, Church and Tex remove him from Caboose's Mind, but in the process, O'Malley escapes into Doc. Into the "Future" Using a captured Donut as leverage, Church forces Sarge, the Red Team leader to build permanent robot bodies for Tex and himself. However, Sarge installs a bomb inside Church's body.Burns, et al., 2004. It explodes in Episode 43 and sends all the characters into the future except Church, who is sent into the distant past. In Episode 50 and Episode 51, Church travels to his recent past and attempts to prevent the events of the first two seasons. The situation is revealed as a predestination paradox, in which he causes not only the events of the first and second seasons but also the death of his former captain, Captain Butch Flowers. Eventually, Church manages to break the time loop and to travel forward in time to join the other characters.Burns, et al., 2005. Later in Season 3, Church and the Blues meet Andy, a talking, sentient bomb built by Tex. Church attempts to learn more about a prophecy from a computer, Gary, that he first encountered in the distant past. Episode 57, the last of Season 3, ends as Church, unaware that a creature is approaching him, responds to Gary's knock-knock joke with "Who's there?"Burns, et al., 2005. Episode 58 reveals that Church has been scared out of his body. After recovering his body, Church meets the alien and learns about his quest, which involves Tucker's sword. Return to Blood Gulch After his teammates leave to help the alien in his quest, Church returns to Blood Gulch in Episode 68. He saves Simmons from execution by Sarge, assuming leadership over him. Church takes the Red Team's jeep before Simmons returns to the Reds. In Episode 71, Church accidentally contacts Vic Jr. via radio. This new character scoffs at the mention of Blue Command; as the episode ends, he says that he has much to tell, but the information is not revealed to the viewer.Burns, et al., 2006. After Tucker, Caboose, and Andy return to Blood Gulch in Episode 73, Tucker becomes ill for an unknown reason, and Church calls Doc for help. In Episode 76, Doc reveals that Tucker is pregnant, but Church refuses to believe him until he learns from Andy that the Alien impregnated Tucker with a parasitic embryo. Church then returns to the Blue Base to help Tucker. When the ship that Blue Command sends to Blood Gulch crashes, he claims it as his own, threatening the Reds with Sheila. However, Sheila abruptly leaves, forcing Church to abandon the ship. In Episode 80 Church meets Junior for the first time, and quickly says that he should be killed. Believing the Reds may have reinforcements or weapons on the ship, he unsuccessfully attempts to contact Vic Jr. Some time after, however, Grif brings over Sister who was the new recruit on the Red Team, explaining that she is actually a Blue, and Church accepts her as part of the Blue Team. Following this, Church, Caboose and a newly-returned Tex in tow, attempt to fix Sheila by rebooting her. When turning her back on proves to be impossible, Church decides to move her into the ship. While transferring Sheila into the ship, Vic Jr. contacts Church and orders them to kill the Reds. Church sends Doc, Sister, and Junior through the caves as per the orders, and he infiltrates Red Base with Tex and Tucker. After a brief search of the base, they find it empty. Tex is then contacted by Caboose and, after an unheard conversation, points her gun at Church demanding that O'Malley not move. Church quickly learns that Caboose and Sheila identified O'Malley as inside the Blue leader, which cannot be him as he was never officially promoted. He then accurately guesses that the real host of O'Malley is a revived Captain Butch Flowers. Omega's Assault Church, Tex, and Tucker are soon ambushed by Wyoming and Gamma, who has now taken control of the tank. They manage to escape with the help of Tucker figuring out Wyoming's time distortion routine. Unfortunately, they are once again attacked by Wyoming's clones, due to the effect of the time distortion unit, and Church is nearly shot by Gamma. The Reds arrive and eliminate the Wyoming clones in their Warthog, leaving one left. The last Wyoming tells Church, Tucker, and Tex about Omega's plan to infect Junior; a plan Tex is apart of. As a result, Tex kills the last Wyoming, knocks down Church to prevent him from stopping her, and activates her radio in order to be infected. When Omega infects Caboose, Tex and Church follow him into Caboose's Mind. There, Church knocks Omega and Tex out of Caboose's mind with mental Tucker's sword. When Church escapes, Caboose tells him that Tex took Tucker's sword, Junior, and Wyoming's helmet and put them on the ship, shocking Church. With Omega infecting every person, he eventually infects Church, who states that he doesn't feel different. Tex then knocks him down and Omega infects her. She leaves Blood Gulch in the Pelican with her necessities on board. However, Sarge orders Andy, whom he secretly placed on the ship, to detonate and explode, shocking Church. As Church tries to contact Andy on where Tex is going, Andy explodes inside the ship, just as it escapes Blood Gulch. With nothing else to do, Church and the Blues return to base. At Blue base, Caboose asks Church if he ever wonders why they're here. Church replies with a rant about hating people, specifying that one should hate somebody because of who they are, not because they were told to dislike someone. However, Caboose corrects him, stating that he simply wanted to know why they were in the sun when they could be in the shade. Church, realizing what he meant, agrees to go stand in the shade with Caboose. Discovering the Truth A year after his deployment on Blood Gulch, Church reappears in Reconstruction: Chapter 4, having been relocated to Outpost 48-A alone. Despite desperately trying to keep Caboose away from him, Caboose, along with Agent Washington, manages to track him down. Although Church is initially uninterested in helping Wash, he reluctantly joins him and Caboose on their mission after learning that Tex's ship has been located. Church is quickly able to work alongside Wash, though is displeased about working with Caboose again. Together, the three arrive at Valhalla and discover a video log from Sheila, before she shuts down. Suddenly, Wash gets a Recovery Beacon from Agent South, and pursues her with the Blues. The three return to Outpost 48-A and engage both South Dakota and the Meta, but the latter escapes. After Church informs Wash of Wyoming's helmet being present on the ship, South is killed and Delta is retrieved. The group eventually make it to Zanzibar, where Delta informs Church more about Project Freelancer. Soon after, the group encounter Meta, but are soon ambushed by the Reds. The Reds and Blues cease their fighting when the Meta soon starts attacking the Reds but is forced to flee when Washington intervened. Church is later forced to enter the mind of a comatose Caboose in order to find out what's wrong with him. Within Caboose's mind, Church encounters a memory fragment of Delta, who gives him a message: "Memory is the key." After exiting Caboose's mind, Church finally reveals to Washington that he is a ghost and tells him about Delta's message. Wash then tells the Reds and Blues that they must break into Freelancer Command, in order to unlock the Alpha. This results in the team soon finding themselves scavenging for a vehicle at Valhalla. While there, Church investigates Outpost 17-A for Tex, but Wash informs him that she is long gone. After obtaining a vehicle the group make it into Command. Wash and Church pair up and enter the Freelancer A.I. Containment Facility, where they find a storage unit for Wash's A.I. Epsilon. Church becomes furious that Wash lied to him, but Wash explains that all the other A.I. were never copied from the Alpha, but were instead fragments of it, created by torturing the Alpha until it began to split off parts of its personality in order to protect its sanity, which were then harvested for use. is activated.]] He then reveals that Church himself is the Alpha AI, a secret even he didn't know about. Church refuses to believe this, still believing himself to be a ghost, and leaves with the others to escape with Epsilon. However, Church ultimately returns to help Wash and provides him time to activate the EMP. When Wash does so, Church and the other A.I. fragments (excluding Epsilon) are caught in the blast and destroyed, allowing the Reds and Caboose to successfully escape with Epsilon. It is later revealed that Church was modeled and named after the Director of Project Freelancer. Although Church was destroyed, his sacrifice was not in vain, as it was because of him that Washington was able to activate the EMP, putting an end to Project Freelancer. In addition, Epsilon later took on his identity and personality, essentially becoming the new "Church". Alpha Agent Washington has stated that Alpha was a "smart" A.I., but its current state was that of Church, in which many of the personality traits (including but not limited to: rage, deception, logic, trust, and creativity) have been separated into alternate A.I.s for field use. After several Freelancers attempted to steal Alpha, it was sealed away in an undisclosed location. After Church entered Caboose's mind in Reconstruction: Chapter 11 and received Delta's message of "Memory is the key," Washington quickly formulated a plan to stop the Meta. He informed the Reds and Blues that they were going to Command to steal the Alpha, as its memories were the only thing that could stop the Meta. However, he later revealed to Church that it was Epsilon, Alpha's memory bank fragment, that they were seeking. Wash revealed that as the war between humans and aliens continued, things were not looking good for humans. As a result, dozens of projects were beginning to commence in order to find the "magic bullet to win" and turn the tide; one of these projects being Project Freelancer. Project Freelancer researched soldiers with aggressive A.I., however, they could only get one and they needed more to conduct their experiments. Because the A.I. were based on human minds, the Director of Project Freelancer, Dr. Leonard Church, came up with a theory: splitting up one A.I. instead of copying it, in order to make more. As a result, the Director tortured the Alpha to the point where it isolated certain aspects of its personality to preserve its sanity. These fractured traits were then harvested and refined into "purified, compartmentalized emotion," creating additional A.I. Wash also explained that no A.I. was a complete personality; that each was an aspect of Alpha that it attempted to preserve or a negative emotion from the result of its treatment. Delta represented Alpha's logic, Omega represented its rage, Gamma represented its deceit, Sigma represented its creativity and ambition, Theta was its trust, and Beta was created indirectly as a byproduct (it was a side effect of making the Alpha, as Beta was based on Dr. Church's memories of his dead lover Allison). .]] Eventually, the Alpha had to abandon its memories to remain sane, and thus created Epsilon. In order to keep the fragmented A.I. and their assigned Freelancers from finding the Alpha, it was hidden in a place where no one would ever think to look: a backwater canyon in the middle of nowhere. Burnie Burns confirmed in an interview that Alpha Church died in the EMP, though this is offset by the fact that a figure of Alpha Church comments on his legacy with Tex in the Recreation Trailer, though he does say he is dead. However, the scenes in the trailer featuring Tex and Church were non-canon and were used to promote the revival of Church in Recreation. Church was reincarnated in The Installation through Epsilon, when Caboose inserted the latter into a monitor. More information about Epsilon can be found here. Personality Church is, arguably, the sanest of the entire Blood Gulch soldiers. He was shown to be somewhat serious about his job and was completely bewildered by the crazy happenings around the canyon. He was completely shocked by the Omega AI's ability to jump from person to person, being sent back and forth in time, Tucker being pregnant and having a baby and Vic calling out of nowhere to give them orders and then instantly hang up. In response to all of these, Church answered in the same manner: yelling in anger and frustration. Church also has a very angry personality as he hates several characters' traits and is easily annoyed by them, often trying to avoid connecting with them personally. He has been shown to hate generally everyone he meets, or at least dislike them in some manner, mostly due to their completely erratic personalities. After "dying", Church's traits became more noticeable, expressing selfishness as he began to wish that one of the others died and stated "Misery loves company," when knowing the bomb would destroy his body no matter what in Make Your Time. Additionally, Church seems to absolutely despise ever admitting fault. For example, after being sent backwards and forwards in time, he denied ever attempting to alter the timeline to Caboose, although this might be out of frustration that Caboose of all people was questioning his logic in front of the rest of the Blues, and flatly lied to him in front of his entire team about not even attempting to change anything. He also actively denies any romantic feelings towards Tex, showing he dislikes people being able to read him. Despite this, Church shows a level of compassion and care for his teammates, most notably towards Tex. He is friendly with Tucker, and shows concern for his well-being, as shown when he called Tucker aside before he left on his "Quest". He also Because of his logical reasoning, Church holds great leadership and proved to be a selfless individual when he stayed and helped Washington face the Meta at Command, not knowing if he would live or die when the EMP would go off. While Church was a very volatile character, he was at heart, a very caring person. Relationships Church has many complex relationships with characters in the series. Themes Angry Personality From the outset, Rooster Teeth establishes that Church is often angry. Burns has said that, in this way, Church was modeled after Gustavo Sorola, who voices the character Simmons. At the time, Sorola was frustrated with his job.Smith. To emphasize this trait, Caboose, for whom Rooster Teeth did not have a plan originally, was basically "a catalyst for getting Church pissed off."Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 4. When Church and Tex explore Caboose's Mind as ghosts, Caboose's mental image of Church, Leonard, is portrayed as over-the-top, vulgar, and Caboose's best friend. During season 1, Rooster Teeth made a conscious decision to reduce vulgarity in Red vs. Blue, partly inspired by Homestar Runner''Burns, ''et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 16. and partly in response to requests to make the videos safe for work. However, response to this change was worse,Burns, et al., 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 20. and Leonard's excessive vulgarity was Rooster Teeth's response to criticism that they had eliminated too much foul language.Burns, et al., 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 33. In the audio commentary for the Season 4 DVD, Rooster Teeth has noted, however, that they had portrayed Church as less angry in later episodes. Firing Accuracy Church often wields a sniper rifle, but mainly for observation purposes, since he is a very poor shot, a fact which has been demonstrated on numerous occasions. He has had only 2 successful shots during the span of the series with the rifle: The first was shooting Wyoming in the crotch in Episode 98, much to his surprise and delight; however, technically this shot didn't happen due to a time-loop caused by Wyoming; the other time, the bullet ricocheted off several structures, miraculously wounding the Meta. He was also able to shoot off Caboose's pinky toe from a distance with a magnum. Frequently, Church is a terrible shot, with no real excuse for his lack of skill, save for lack of practice. It has been stated that the reason he is a terrible is because, when he was fragmented he lost that part of him that he needed to be a good shot. He has missed Caboose on numerous occasions, Donut during his return to Blood Gulch in season 3, and Doc/O'Malley near the end of Season 4, even when they were standing perfectly still, and only a relatively short distance away. Church's accuracy with weapons tends to fluctuate from having exceptional skill to having none ''at all. He failed to hit a Freelancer Project guard with multiple pistol shots at close range during his and Washington's infiltration of the Freelancer command in Reconstruction Chapter 15. In contrast, Church has been able to make a few incredible shots, the most noteworthy being his missile assault on the Meta. Despite targeting an incredibly agile foe and taking only a moment to aim, Church's shot not only was dead on, but it was clearly a perfectly centered head shot. In the Old Annoyance Be Forgot special he proves capable of hitting three tiny Christmas baubles hanging on the Reds' tree from a considerable distance away. Also, in the Fight, Fight! alternate ending to the Blood Gulch chronicles, although non-canon, he not only kills Sarge with a sniper shot after the latter taunts him about Tex's death, but kills Simmons with a perfect headshot after he unwittingly does the same, perhaps indicating that Church can make these kinds of shot if he is angry enough. "Death" Being dead has sparked a number of developments in Church's character. At first, it only added to Church's irate personality. Though his abilities as a ghost have proven useful, as Church has no intention of remaining a ghost and merely focuses on maintaining his possession of his new robot body. Due to his long possession of his body, Church seems to forget that he's dead sometimes, often expressing acts of fear or self-preservation in dangerous situations as though he still had a life to lose. In Season 3, Church finally forgave Sheila for killing him, as he accidentally caused it by turning Sheila’s Friendly Fire Protocol off, but becomes annoyed again when she apologizes for enjoying it so much. Skills and Abilities Leadership Despite being a private, a major characteristic of Church is that he's been shown to be a great leader. For example: despite Tucker being higher in rank, Church commonly leads the Blues and has also led the Reds and Blues against O'Malley's final assault. This is also shown in ''Reconstruction, where he seemingly takes second-in-command under Washington when the teams were pitted against the Meta. It can be assumed that he obtained this trait from the Director, as he leads an advanced military program. According to Tucker in Reconciliation, Church's leadership was him "taking the blame when shit went wrong." Logic Church isn't only one of smartest Blood Gulch troopers, but he also has great deal of logical reasoning. Because of this, he has defeated several enemies and even saved the teams from the bomb detonating in Episode 52. His logic is most likely due to the fact that he is the Alpha A.I. Possession Due to being an A.I., Church has the ability to possess and take control of anyone. After "dying", Church first demonstrated this ability by possessing Sarge in order to rescue Tex. He has since used this ability to learn vital info, sneak into bases, and even go against Omega in Caboose's mind. Being the Alpha, Church has shown to be much more skilled in possession than other A.I.s, as he completely takes over the host in a few seconds, while O'Malley caused some characters to develop a split-personality, showing they still had some control, and it took Sigma many days, or even months, to take control of Maine. Kills Most Church's kills are the result of the time loop. He accidentally killed his captain, Butch Flowers, while trying to save him from a "heart attack". However, he was able to kill Wyoming in an alternate timeline with his sniper rifle and possibly some of his clones before the Reds came to save them. Image:Church Kills Flowers.png|Butch Flowers Image:Wyoming.png|Wyoming (Alternate Timeline) Behind the Scenes Filming , shown here, Church first appears as a ghost. This effect required additional filming by Rooster Teeth.]] In the commentary for Season 1 DVD, Burns recalls that he decided to have Church killed in episode 8 because he thought that having a dead character return as a ghost would give that character more personality.Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 8. However, this plot twist made filming more difficult. To achieve the transparency effect, Rooster Teeth filmed the scene once with Church and once without him. The video from the two takes was then dissolved together. However, this process caused other characters in the scene to appear transparent as well. To correct this, they had to be edited back in as fully opaque at the end.Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 10. Sometimes, Rooster Teeth forgot to shoot the second take before moving to the next scene. As it was nearly impossible to return to the exact camera position, this required the entire scene to be filmed twice more. Another complication was that dissolution worked poorly against certain backgrounds.Burns, et al., 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 29. A fan soon pointed out that Poor Camo could be used. For the robot that Caboose implants Epsilon into, the players simply entered the Forge aspect of Halo 3 Multiplayer and used the Forge Monitor as the Epsilon-Church. Voice Acting When Burns decided to have Church possess other characters as a ghost, he debated whether he should attempt to sound like the character, or have the other character's voice actor attempt to sound like Church. When the possession occurs in Episode 14, he found that having Hullum tweak his Southern accent normally used for Sarge was too complicated and thus attempted to sound like Sarge during the possession.Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, episode 14. On the other hand, he found that attempting to mimic Donut's voice result in a voice too similar to the one used for Vic; as such, when he had Church possess Donut in Episode 37, he merely used Church's voice.Burns, et al., 2004, Audio Commentary, episode 37. Other Rooster Teeth personnel have commented that some sound effects that Burns made while voicing Church were noticeably exaggerated. In commenting on Episode 6, Geoff Ramsey, who voices the character Grif, noted the heavy breathing that Church makes while running.Burns, et al., 2003, Audio Commentary, Episode 6. Another sound that Rooster Teeth noted was a grunt made while jumping off a ledge in Episode 33. Gallery Animated Church.jpg|Church in Red vs. Blue: Animated. Churchisms.png|Churchisms Church and his Sniper Rifle Season 01.png|Church takes aim Church - S5.png Yellow Church and Church Blowing Up - S5.png Church in OoM.png Church confuses Donut for Caboose.png Church and Tucker spying on cliff.png|Church and Tucker spying on the Reds Caboose and Church.png|Church and Caboose Church & Tucker in Halo 4.png|Church in the Halo 4 engine. Church & Caboose IAWTV Awrds.png Church & Sarge discuss Pro-Tips.png LMK Draws Church1.jpg|Church Artwork (1) LMK Draws Church2.jpg|Church Artwork (2) Reconstruction Church.png Church Reconstruction.png Reconstruction 8.png Reconstruction 18.png Reconstruction 11.png Alpha talking to Tex.png Program Alpha session complete.png Alpha speaking with Counselor.png You...are the Alpha.png Church confuses Donut for Caboose.png Church and Tucker spying on cliff.png Church and Sarge PSA Online Survival.png Church Best of DVD.png Church S10.png Trivia *Unlike his counterpart Epsilon, Church himself has not been alternatively computer animated, although he is seen in an animated render on the "Churchisms" poster. However, the poster also shows the monitor, suggesting it could be Epsilon instead of Church. **However, Church has been shown in 2D animation in Red vs. Blue: Animated. *Despite holding a sniper rifle all the time, Church seems to miss nearly every shot with it, unless he's lucky or by accident. Whenever Church actually manages to line up a shot, something always renders it irrelevant (either he shoots something unimportant or a temporal loop/distortion gets in the way). *To date, it is unknown what the L. used to represent Church's middle name stands for. *For some unknown reason Church is afraid of sickness. This is revealed in Season 4 when Tucker was "sick" and Church was too afraid to go into Blue Base and find out what was wrong with Tucker instead being content with sending in Andy instead, despite the fact that he was still an A.I. in a robot's body, or at least a ghost as far as he knew at the time. *Despite living in a robot body, Caboose and Tucker claim Church is getting fatter in Season 5. *Church is one of the series’ few "smart" characters of the Blood Gulch soldiers (Although, he is the Alpha A.I., as revealed in Reconstruction, so it isn't surprising if he is), the others being Simmons, Lopez, and Tex. *One possible reason that Church and Tex broke up may be because of unfaithfulness. Church once mentioned to Tucker that Tex would often steal his money and sleep with other men. Also, in Vive la Resolution!, for resolution recommendations for Tex, one reads; "She meant nothing to me," and "How many times do we have to have this argument?" As these memories were ultimately fake due to Church being the Alpha, it is unknown if this history was in any way rooted in the people he and Tex were based on. *Despite generally hating him, Church became genuinely sad, and angry when Caboose is killed in an attempt to save him and Tucker from Wyoming during Same Old, Same Old. * It could be possible that Church is Jewish, due to the fact that one of the graves in Everything Old is New Again had a Star of David (a symbol commonly used on Jewish items, including tomb stones). Also in Red vs. Blue: The Musical, all of Church's graves are marked with Stars of David. ** In Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide, when the Director meets Allison for the first time, he states that his surname is Jewish. This heavily implies that he, and Church by extension, are likely Jewish. (It should be noted, however, that the Alpha idea had likely not been conceived at this point and the gravestones were likely included for comedic effect, as Tucker even notes that the team doesn't even have the tools to bury someone, much less construct them a gravestone.) **In the RvB Holiday Special (non-canon), Sarge mentions that next year "Church is going to sing us something about a dreidel," a Jewish item. *Alpha is one of four A.I.s, the others being Sigma, Omega, and Epsilon, that can influence his host to the point where he can fully control their actions, such as when he took control of Sarge. *When Church was revealed to be an A.I., it was originally stated that the body he possessed before Caboose killed him wasn't biological, even though Tucker claims it stunk. Burnie Burns confirmed in the Jenga Jam interview that Church's first body was, in fact, robotic and Tucker's comment was just a joke. This was further established in the Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide, stating that Red Team was also given a robot making kit to mask that Alpha was on blue team. However, in season 14, this was retconned so that Church was unknowingly possessing Pvt. Jimmy, explaining why he stunk. Nah it's just a body. It's the same mechanical body. And those events take place before we set up that. If I had to have one inconsistency in the whole storyline, it's that one. The Church's body and the Tucker thing. Tucker's of course cracking his jokes about it stinking or whatever. The best way to think about it is that the existence of Lopez is important in the sense of the existence of Church. Everything's balanced in Blood Gulch canyon, right? The one thing that's not balanced the fact that Red Team has a robot, and why is that? Why is this one thing imbalanced? They both have a vehicle. They both have a base. They both have a flag. But why does one team get this robot? And the actual explanation is within the larger story. - Burnie Burns, Late Nite Jenga Jam, Episode 141: Burnie Burns vs LFTO References Category:Characters Category:Blue Team Category:AI Category:Simulation Trooper Category:Deceased Category:Protagonists Category:Reds and Blues